Every shop needs a tool chest. So I set out to build a beautiful wall-hanging unit made completely from plywood. Plywood is inexpensive, durable, easy to find, and perfect for shop furniture.

The first video in the series focuses entirely on the design. Now I’m no George Walker and I would guess that you aren’t either. So how do we “average Joe designers” go about developing a project concept from start to finish? I’ll show ya!

My general workflow looks something like this: Identify the requirements—> Establish what we know—> Determine what we don’t know—> Use SketchUp (roughly) to help define dimensions—> Assess visual appeal and apply relevant design rules if possible

Notice I said I only use SketchUp “roughly”. While SketchUp is an incredibly powerful tool and I envy those that are proficient in it, you certainly don’t have to be an expert to use it. Who says you need to sketch the entire project from top to bottom, inside and out? If you can draw rectangles and lines, you already know enough to help answer some fundamental design questions on any project you build. And if you have the time and desire to get deeper into the program, go for it! Your work will only benefit from the additional detail. But if you aren’t inclined to click ‘n drag design, you can still use this incredibly helpful program at the most basic level and still get something useful out of it.

Thankfully, Guild member Robert (TurkVA) is one of those fancy proficient SketchUp users, and he was able to create a SketchUp plan which is available for you to download now.

Remember, this is not a “how-to”; its a “how-I-do”. And you’ll see that I actually have to change my original design after I see how things are going to look in Sketchup. So its a fairly unfiltered look into my process. Oh, and Nicole is back to show us her sweet acting skillz! I should also mention that this video is being pulled from the Wood Whisperer Guild archive for your viewing pleasure. For more information about the Guild, check out WoodWhispererGuild.com

Thanks for the video, Marc. This looks like it is going to be a pretty useful addition to your shop. I have been meaning to do one of these for some time since I really do not have a proper cabinet for storing my planes.

With regards to Rick’s problem viewing the video, I have the same difficulty but am able to work around it by pausing the video and letting it continue to buffer for a while ( do some designing in Sketchup or play a round of hearts, for example. If the video is allowed to buffer long enough it can be seen without any breakup. ) and then hit the play button.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Yeah its definitely not a bad idea to hit that pause button. The way Blip streams their videos, they push out a lot of data at the very beginning to get things going, and then it slows down significantly after that point. So even just pausing for a couple seconds really helps performance. If someone is on a particularly slow connection, they should just hit pause and watch the little shaded bar fill up.

I have a pretty solid connection here and by the time the video was at the 2 minute mark, the buffer was about 50% full. Obviously everyone’s experience will differ depending on their connection and how well Blip’s servers are behaving at that moment.

I should also point out that we provide small and large downloadable versions right above the embed. Feel free to download the entire video and watch it at your leisure. Added bonus is that the quality is better on the downloadable versions and the HD one is a full 720p HD video. As a result its pretty darn big too!

Generally I consider myself a “hybrid” woodworker. I do most of the bulk work and heavy lifting with my power tools. I save my hand tools for the fun stuff like sweetening joints, smoothing, and anything else I can’t do efficiently with a power tool. So I do use my #7, my smoother, and all of my specialty tools (router plane, shoulder plane, spokeshaves, etc) quite often.

Man! Am I glad that you are posting this build! Believe it or not That was one of the next projects that I was going to do in my own shop. I am very glad to see it. By the way how about sending me those hand planes so I can measure my shop cabinet, I will of course promptly send them back. LOL! Thanks Marc for all you do to help educate us in woodworking. Your talent is greatly appreciated.